Vallejo City Council hears proposal about adding two staff positions in fight against MMDs

A new chapter in the City of Vallejo’s fight against medical marijuana dispensaries began Tuesday night, as the city council unanimously approved a resolution of intention to amend the city’s budget to add two positions and salaries to enforce against MMDs.

A resolution of intention serves as a first reading — not an actual policy change — at the time of adoption.

According to city staff, a deputy city attorney and legal secretary are required to carry out enforcement of shutting down all MMDs inside city limits.

The budget impact for the 2014-2015 fiscal year would be around $66,00, if a hire date of April 1 is approved. According to the same staff report, $30,000 would be given to the police department for enforcement activity between approval by the council and June 30.

The city’s fiscal year begins July 1 and ends the following June 30.

City staff estimates that the enforcement project will be in place for two years, with the deputy city attorney position costing the city more than $150,000 each year, while the legal secretary position will require $110,000 per year.

“These two additional positions are required in order to begin the City Attorney Office’s enforcement project to shut down illegal MMDs operating in Vallejo,” according to the same staff report.

In 2011, city voters approved Measure C, which imposes a business license tax rate of 10 percent on the sales of medical marijuana products within the city.

During a January city council meeting, the council voted to shut down all MMDs in the city — even if they were paying the Measure C tax — and to stop collecting the tax altogether.

Prior to the vote Tuesday, Councilmember Robert McConnell spoke on the issue, commenting that he spoke with the city’s finance director and was told that the city receives around $750,000 each year in Measure C tax revenue.

“That’s a significant amount of money,” McConnell said.

McConnell also expressed a desire for the city to develop a regulatory scheme, even with many believing state voters in 2016 will approve the recreational use of marijuana.

He also brought up the idea of the city having its own MMD, to replace the 11 MMDs that were paying the tax.

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“Some of you are going to be gone,” he said as he directed his comments to several MMD owners in the council chambers.

Just last month, MMD owners were turned away by city employees as the owners attempted to pay $50,000 in Measure C taxes.

“As of January 13, 2015, the City of Vallejo City Council directed city staff to no longer accept medical marijuana monthly tax returns or any tax payments related to medical marijuana,” read a city employee from a prepared statement sheet in February. “In addition, the City of Vallejo will no longer issue new or renew business licence tax certificates for medical marijuana dispensaries.

“I do not have the authority to accept any payments or tax returns (pertaining to medical marijuana),” the employee added.

Prior to Tuesday’s vote, a member of the public vented his frustration with the council for ignoring the Measure C vote.

“They gave you a mandate. If that’s not a mandate, then I don’t know what is,” he said. “For some reason you want to shut it all down and throw it all out.

“What does that do for (the city of Vallejo)?” he added.

The speaker said that he looked at the vote totals for each member of the city council and saw that Measure C received close to 14,000 votes — around 76 percent — more votes than city council members received during their respective campaigns.

“I voted for some of you and had I know you would do this, I wouldn’t have voted for you,” he said.

The council is expected to make a decision at its next meeting about the deputy district attorney and legal secretary positions.